International Date Line (Day 16)

Crossing the International Date Line
Today’s information is too complex to share. We just crossed the international date line. We crossed it
going west in the middle of the night. You worry at this time of year about ghouls and goblins causing
havoc in the middle of the night. Can they do better than stealing an entire day? We went to bed on
the 18 th of October and after a few hours of bouncy sleep we woke up on October 20 th . In fact, if we getthis posted fast enough you will get to read our entry for October 20th while you are still on the 19th (Nicole did not get it posted fast enough.... can you go back over the line and bring back a day or two for me to try again?). Talk about Wizardry. One little-known fact is that every day from 10-11:59 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) there are three different calendar dates in use simultaneously on Earth. This could be a travel planning nightmare for those who are unaware. Please note the order of letters in the abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time. One of the components of UTC is TAI (International Atomic Time). Check out the order of letters in this abbreviation. Honestly, could they make it any more confusing? Suffice it to say, we just missed the 19 th of October, but you will not.

(To add to the confusion, the official TV channel in our room, “Navigation Map,” scrolls current ship
speed, wind speed and direction, temperature, latitude and longitude, etc. has the wrong date. Sigh.)

Photos contain information for you if you wish to examine.
 The Time Zone Map is from https://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/



 The International Date Line/Time Zone Map is from https://cdn.britannica.com/75/154575-050-
68BACC24/time-zone-map-standard-time-international-date-line.jpg


For your pleasure, I’ll include a poem from Mary Oliver from a book found in the ship’s library:

When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention
“As long as we are able to
be extravagant, we will be
hugely and damply
extravagant. Then we will drop
foil by foil to the ground. This
is our unalterable task, and we do it
joyfully.”

And they went on. “Listen,
the heart-shackles are not, as you think,
death, illness, pain,
unrequited hope, not loneliness, but
lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety,
selfishness.”

Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.
Mary Oliver, Devotions, 2017, Penguin Press, New York, 124.

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